Saturday, August 15, 2009

The answer, for me at least, is no. Well, perhaps I should clarify that - the technical answer is yes, I have ever wanted one, namely, a few years ago when xkcd was funny and it was something I would want to be attached to my neck. But now, no. No I do not want an xkcd tie. And if I did, I would want it to be clever or nerdy, the way the good xkcd comics - even now - are. I wouldn't want it to just be covered in low-res stick figures.

Seriously, they don't even have a normal Mr. Stick! Fuck, they don't even have xkcd's one character, Mr. Hat! They have Guy on Chair, Guy on Ground, Guy In Ball. They have two Girls Lyring On Their Stomachs, which i find only a little strange, and then there's also the word "xkcd" at the bottom. You know, the bottom is the part that ends up by your crotch. Why not have "xkcd" right there?

I made fun of the last new shirt Randall brought us, and said, among other things, that the only reason you would buy it is "to prove to other people that you are a fan of xkcd and a nerd." I think that's true here as well, since on its own the tie is fairly ugly. No humor, just kind of scattered stick figures. Not even any fun colors...this is just to show off that you like xkcd, nothing more at all. xkcd has gone from being a thing that people like because it is good to a think that people like because it is cool to like. And so the merchandise goes from being a good thing on its own to just being a thing that shows the world that you like xkcd.

But my favorite part is that it costs $32. what? Who the fuck wants to spend that much on a goddamn xkcd tie? $19 for a shirt is also pretty expensive but at least that covers your whole chest, and even the top of your arms! This is...this is not so much. Hell, it's twice as much as the awesome 8-Bit ties that Think Geek sells.

NO that's a lie, my favorite part is here:

Did you catch it? Look again!

you fucking misspelled "characters". What a god damn idiot you are! Yesterday's comic you misspelled "dysentery," the comic before that you got your whole proof wrong. I've said before that you should get an editor, and you didn't listen, and so I'll say it again - get a fucking editor. Now I know most webcomics don't have them, but most webcomics don't fuck up on a regular basis like you do.

anyway, have fun with your tie, randall. wear it to the webcomic awards show. no one else wants to buy it.

Fernie and I had a nice discussion about this in the other thread, but I feel I should post a quick summary here too, because it's more relevant:

It's not funnyIt's just stick figures.

You are spending 32$ on a tie with random stick figures your son could paint on your tie and you would ground him for a week. Why would anyone encourage this behaviour on the big man child randall? Randall, please stop ruining our ties, the boss will just bitch at me and I will lose my job and then I won't be able to feed my hypothetical children

And even if there was some appeal to what randall draws these days, it's still juts referential. The only people who would wear this, are (as carl pointed out nicely) douchebags who think they gain cool points for spending 32$ on a really ugly tie

Proposal for edit: s/two Girls Lyring On Their Stomachs/Girl Lying On Her Stomach, Another Girl Also Lying On Her Stomach/. Seriously, misinterpreting that scared the hell out of me.

Also, doesn't tab give you a list of linux commands (that are available to you), with ability to filter, without having to hunch over to read it? (Though, being a linux user, 95% of your waking time is probably spent hunched over a computer... Ha, take that, Carl!)

it wouldn't be so bad if it was pretty. I mean, it may not be the classiest thing ever, but if you're wearing a tie that is "from" something it's totally cool to do so if it actually looks good, still.

I don't really enjoy going technical and nit-picky when it comes to xkcd criticism, but I'm starting to consider this to be xkcd's "jump the shark" moment. Other than that, I don't have anything to say that others haven't said better.

I don't understand why nerds like to celebrate and pay high money for ugly clothing.

In a way, it's like buying an Abercrombie or whatever shirt that in essence does nothing but advertise the brand across your chest. Though, I hate when people do that too. But at least those shirts aren't as horribly tacky as this tie.

Now that that's out of the way, Mr. Hat is obviously on the tie. The fact that his hat is white comes from the magic of this being a negative.

WHICH IS ALSO WHAT I AM WITH REGARDS TO THIS TIE LAWL.

Anyway. Again: holy shit. Why not just put a single character there? The science guy holding the beaker, or whatever. Anything other than a randomly strewn about bunch of characters. God!

It' not even scenes from the most legendary XKCD's, either. The first one is just one about a guy sitting down, the guy on chair is from the non-legendary compiling comic, there's one from the giant hamsterball comic which I guess is kinda okay, sorta, and the girl.. I don't even know what the fuck is going on there. Is she vomiting? Did she get beat up? Why the hell would you draw a stick figure that way and put it on a tie? Mr. Hat isn't even doing anything. The couple holding hands is kind of iconic XKCD mushiness, I guess. The last character could only have been shittier if it was just generic guy sitting at his generic desk.

I propose, by the way, that the two ladies on their stomachs are part two in Randalls plan into subliminally enticing women into having sexy sex with him. Step one was constantly mentioning cunnilingus ("Hey ladies, I'm totally there to serve -your- needs, and your needs alone, in the bedroom."), step two is subtle imagery stating "Oh, I also want to blast you in the ass."

Regarding the shirts: remember that awful idea about XKCD Sucks shirts a while back? That's still bad, but for some reason (presumably because I hate the shirt it's based on) I still find that "I'm a douchebag! (Don't talk to me!)" shirt totally hilarious.

@Asher. Incorrect. On the xkcd forums you get the occasional oddball "i did not love this more than my family. I still loved it a lot, though", which randall really can't handle. He said it himself, he doesn't read the forum

You know guys, I was on the phone with my mother today and I don't know how but somehow we got on the topic of this blog, so I was trying to explain it to her. It was kind of odd hearing myself describe what we do and how randall seems to be incapable of handling even the tiniest bit of criticism. But I also felt kinda stupid for criticizing everything randall munroe does in a group of several people.

I have honestly considered contacting randall and forcing him to read the last guest post. Cause it was really good and fair. The only thing keeping me from doing that is being too damn lazy.

First of all, Guy With Hat is on the tie. You obviously didn't look hard enough, which is understandable as you just fling your ill-conceived hate around without legitimately looking for a reason to be angry.

to be fair, he writes about 40 words a week and I write way way more. Also, he is a professional and I am a seven year old who has mistakenly been given internet access. So I don't think it's fair to compare us.

also when I make a mistake I admit it, laugh, and correct it, Randall corrects it quickly and pretends it never happened.

So, uh... I understand free speech and all, but do you guys realize that by complaining about his comic strip you drive more traffic to his site, thus (probably) making it more popular because intelligent people with a good sense of humour very much love it? It's been termed the Streisand Effect.

I don't think that anyone who goes to xkcd from this site is going to like it - they've been primed, after all, to think that it sucks. Anyway, it's worth it to know that if Randall looks at his analytics he'll see "xkcdsucks" as a top referrer.

What the hell is this?

Welcome. This is a website called XKCD SUCKS which is about the webcomic xkcd and why we think it sucks. My name is Carl and I used to write about it all the time, then I stopped because I went insane, and now other people write about it all the time. I forget their names. The posts still seem to be coming regularly, but many of the structural elements - like all the stuff in this lefthand pane - are a bit outdated. What can I say? Insane, etc.

I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.

Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.

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